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View from the Fringe Newsletter of the New England Rug Society View from the Fringe Newsletter of the New England Rug Society Vol. 19 No. 4 April 2012 www.ne-rugsociety.org April 20 Meeting: Collector Series, Honoring Alan Varteresian April Meeting Details Date: Friday, April 20 Time: 7:00 p.m. reception, wine and cheese 8:00 p.m. presentation and exhibition Place: Grogan & Company, 22 Harris St., Dedham, MA http://www.groganco.com From Boston: Take Mass Pike (Rt. 90) west to Rt. 128/95 south. Take exit 17 (Needham-Rt. 135). Go east on Rt. 135 (High Street) approximately two miles into Dedham Center. At the light, take a left onto Washington Street. Harris Street is one block down on the right. From west of Boston: Take Mass Pike (Rt. 90) east to Rt. 128/95 south and proceed as above. From the north: Take Rt. 93 south to Rt. 128/95 south and proceed as above. From the south: Take Rt. 95 north to Rt. 128/95 north. Take exit 15 (Rt. 1 east). Follow Rt. 1 east through several lights until you come to Washington St./Rt. 1A (with Alan Varteresian a Dunkin’ Donuts on the left). Bear right (as in a rotary) to turn left onto Washington St. Harris St. will be your In October 2010, NERS highlighted the textile collection of first left, with the gallery immediately on the right. longtime member Mae Festa. That evening with Mae evoked so much enthusiasm that our Collector Series was born. Parking: On both sides of the building, or in the public At our next meeting, on April 20, we will honor member lot just past the overpass. Alan Varteresian, lifelong Greater Bostonian and collector extraordinaire. Although he is known as a Turkmen specialist evolution as a collector, and some of his rugs. Many more because of the examples he has generously lent to various of Alan’s pieces—including a delectable assortment of exhibitions, Alan for decades has been a hunter-gatherer Turkmen, Southwest Persian, and Shahsavan soumak of all manner of pile and flatwoven gems. Furthermore, as bagfaces—will be on display for the audience to savor. Ever a member of an Armenian family whose ranks have included modest, Alan has pledged to “answer questions,” and we look at least two generations of carpet dealers, he has a vast forward to hearing the comments of this gifted raconteur. knowledge of the commercial goings-on, past and present, We also thank another NERS member, Michael Grogan, in New England, New York, and beyond. for providing the setting—his gallery, Grogan & Company, Julia Bailey will talk about Alan’s family history, his in Dedham—for what promises to be a memorable evening. 1 May 20 Meeting: NERS Picnic, Moth Mart, and Show-and-Tell The picnic will be held on Sunday, May 20—rain or shine—at Gore Place, the grounds of the former governor’s mansion in Waltham. We’ll have a huge enclosed tent with water and electricity, bathrooms in the adjacent barn, tables and chairs for all, and plenty of lawn space. Bring your own picnic lunch and we’ll provide soft drinks, coffee, and tea. Enjoy our moth mart: we invite NERS members (dealers or not) to offer a few things for sale during the picnic —and buying is of course encouraged! Bring one or two items for our show-and-tell—mystery textiles or rugs, exotic specimens you think fellow members should know more about, or wonderful acquisitions you want to share. Surveying the moth mart at lovely Gore Place, 2009. Picnic Details Date: Sunday, May 20 (note the day!) Time: Noon to 4 p.m. Place: Gore Place, 52 Gore Street, Waltham From the Mass Pike: Take exit 17 and follow signs to Rt. 20 westbound (Main St. in Watertown). After 1.5 miles, turn left onto Gore St. at the second of two adjoining traffic lights (Shell station on right). Proceed 0.2 miles on Gore St. Turn left (through center island) to Gore Place entrance. From Rte. 128: Take exit 26 onto Rt. 20 eastbound (it starts out as Weston Road and becomes Main Anatolian kilim at the picnic show-and-tell, 2011. St.). After 3.3 miles turn right on Gore St. at the first of two adjoining traffic lights (Shell station on left). Proceed on Gore St. as above. From Newton: Go north on Crafts St. Turn right (at traffic light) on North St. Cross the Charles River and go straight. The street eventually becomes Gore St. Gore Place entrance will be on right. Parking: Use the parking area on the estate grounds. Photo Credits 1, Julia Bailey. 2, Bob Alimi (above), Yon Bard (center and below). 3, Ann Nicholas. 4, Rich Blumenthal. 5, Courtesy Ersari chuval at the picnic show-and-tell, 2011. MFA. 6–7, Mark Hopkins. 8–9, Doug Bailey. 2 View from the Fringe In Tribute to Janet Smith, 1922–2012 It was with sadness that we learned of Janet Smith’s death on January 14. But as Janet herself said, it was time. As her son David recounted it, Janet was slipping downhill months before with congestive heart failure, at one point being hospitalized in what the family thought was the end. But it wasn’t. (I remember seeing her at a meeting after we’d learned of her crisis and being greeted by a warm grin and a hearty, “I’m back!”) But the condition returned and worsened, to the point where she finally couldn’t handle stairs and other exertions, a great frustration for a lady who had always led an active life. Her ninetieth birthday arrived and was feted by the family. Three days later she announced, “That’s it; I’m done.” She went to bed, fell asleep, and never woke up. What a perfect way to go. Janet Hunter Smith was one of those people you could always count on, and one who played a steady role in making the rug society what it is. For many years she took on the tedious tasks of getting the newsletter printed and distributed, and of managing our nametags. “All easy stuff for a retired librarian,” she would tell us. At one of our committee meetings it was lamented that visitors were attending our lectures without paying the guest fee. Janet said, “I’ll take care of it”— and did she ever. After every meeting she would sidle up to me with a conspiratorial smile and hand over a fistful of cash. Nothing got by Janet. She was a great lady, a good friend, and for so many years a mainstay of NERS. We will miss her. Mark Hopkins Editor’s note: Because of Janet’s long association with the Goodnow Library in Sudbury, where she worked and remained a volunteer, NERS has donated to the library three books in her memory: Eiland’s Oriental Rugs: A Comprehensive Guide, Thompson’s Oriental Carpets, and one of the last remaining copies of our now out-of-print Through the Collector’s Eye: Oriental Rugs from New England Private Collections. Each Janet Smith with one of her rugs in 2010. For more volume will carry a bookplate dedicating it to Janet. about her life, see View from the Fringe, Oct. 2010. Rug and Textile Events Exhibitions Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto: Portable Mosques: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Embroideries of Colonial The Sacred Space of the Prayer Rug, through Sept. 3. Boston: Domestic Embroideries, through June 3. The Textile Museum, Washington: Woven Treasures of Baltimore Museum of Art: Embroidered Treasures: Japan’s Tawaraya Workshop, through Aug. 12; Textiles from Central Asia, through May 13. Dragons, Nagas, and Creatures of the Deep, through De Young Museum, San Francisco: The Art of the Anatolian January 6, 2013. Kilim: Highlights from the Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Auctions featuring rugs Collection, through June 10. Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, May 19 (Collector Carpets) Seattle Asian Art Museum: Colors of the Oasis: Central Grogan, Dedham, May 20 (May Auction) Asian Ikats, through Aug. 5. View from the Fringe 3 February 10 Meeting Review: A Night at the MFA and peonies or peaches (representing longevity) amid more complicated fretwork. The second carpet was perhaps slightly younger, dating to around 1800. It had a geometric shou character (another longevity symbol) in the center and dragon motifs featured in both field and border. Another border contained fretwork surrounding ancient motifs that we now label swastikas. This carpet had a predominantly tan-and-blue palette. The third carpet (shown at top right) dated to the eighteenth century, and used lions (wrongly called “fo dogs”), symbolizing courage and strength, as design elements. Peonies adorned the wider border, and pearls— light circles—appeared in the inner one. The final carpet, from the same era, had a pale field with an overall design Lauren Whitley discusses an 18th-century Chinese arrangement rather than the central motif of the other carpet on loan to the MFA from a private collection. three carpets. Peonies, lotus flowers, peach blossoms, and butterflies all embellished the field, with more peonies in the On February 10 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was once main border. again the site for an NERS meeting, with Lauren Whitley, The last part of the evening program gave NERS curator in the department of Textile and Fashion Arts, members a chance to see some smaller carpets and hosting and leading the session. Fortunately, this year’s fragments in the MFA collection. These pieces are rarely outing lacked both the treacherous snowbound roads on display, but Lauren and former curator Julia Bailey had and the noisy First Friday crowd we encountered last year, them brought to the department offices for us to savor (see making for a more relaxing evening.
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